Tell us a bit about yourself
I was born and grew up in Cambridge I moved to Newbury with work in 2001 and have been here ever since. Before I got into Hardcore / Jungle I used to listen to loads of different things mostly crap though.

When did you first get into the hardcore / jungle scene?
A mate gave me a tape of Devious D recorded at the Eclipse Night @ Cambridge Corn exchange. The first tune on there was Menace by Rufige Kru and that grabbed my attention immediately. I then started hunting out as many rave tapes as possible and one of my aunts used to sort me out with copies of her rave tapes. I then started buying tunes from a little record shop called Boom tunes in Cambridge and started saving up to buy a set of decks

I read that you first got a pair of decks in 1992. What made you want to start mixing?
To be honest I can’t remember why I wanted to DJ as no one else at my school was doing it – even when I left school there was only me and one other kid at my school who had decks. I just knew I could buy this music on vinyl and that was the way to play it.

When did you first start producing?
When I started college in 1995 I met loads of other DJs and a couple of them went on to set up home studio’s so I messed around with them making some horrendous noise there but nothing ever got finished, but it planted the seed in my head to get some equipment and start making my own stuff.

Am I right to say you had your first release on vinyl in 2004 in the form a remix of the legendary Top Buzz tune ‘Living In Darkness‘? How did that come about?
Yep that was the first release I had on vinyl. That come about from me living across the road from Nu-Urban (music the distribution company). I used to go over there and talk about tunes with Tobie (Serial Killaz) who used to work there and I used to play him all the crap I was making in my studio back then.

I had done this remix of Living In Darkness just to play in my sets. I played it to Tobie at some point and he had a copy – next thing I know he popped into the pub I lived at with a white label and said go upstairs and listen to that and it was my remix. I didn’t know back then that Phil from Nu-Urban was the owner of Basement records and Tobie had sorted it all out to get released. I was pretty chuffed with that and it’s certainly nice to have my first release on a legendary label such as Basement. I would say its more of a update than a remix though and it sounds awful now lol. Big up to Tobie for that though it certainly encouraged me to get on with making more music and he gave me tons of help back then.

If it was your first release, what took you so long having been DJing since 1992! Where was Vapour the producer in the late 90s?
Well the simple answer to that would be weed and women lol. I was more interested in going out partying and getting wasted rather than saving up for samplers and mixing desks. I kick myself now though as I wish I had pulled my finger out in the 90s and brought a studio sooner.

Thing is as well it cost a fortune to set up a simple studio back in the day – just a sampler that only had about 30mb memory would set you back over a grand that was a hell of a lot of money back then. Before I left Cambridge I got an offer to go live above a pub my mate was running rent free and thats how I managed to get the money to put a deposit down on a sampler, then my mate Adam brought me a computer on finance and I paid him back.
I picked up a 2nd hand mixer for 350 quid (and had no money to eat for a week) and with my minidisc recorder I was good to go.

Within 4 weeks of getting all that I was cutting shit tunes down at music house and testing them out. I then go asked to move down to Newbury to work at a new pub opening down there so I thought it would be a good opportunity to get away from distractions and get on with making music – also living rent free. So I moved down here and bought more equipment and kept banging out shit tunes until things started to sound a lot better. Bailey picked up 2 tracks for his Intasound label and that was it from there, everything steam rolled along.

Your productions always sound contemporary but have that gritty, hardcore feel of D&B in the mid 90s. What is it about that sound you like? How do you get it across in your music?
I think most dnb these days sound too over produced and noisy, I prefer a more organic sound with space and warmth in the tracks. I used to have a whole load of hardware equipment which most of my releases were made with. I think that this made a big difference when I first started putting out tunes as my tracks had a lot more warmth on the low end and lower bass, was a lot more evident on my tracks when played on a big system and I put this down to the equipment I was using at the time.

I got to a point where it was really pissing me off though as there was so much noise and hum coming from it all in the end I ripped it all out and switched to a purely software based set up and sold it all early last year. After using just software for the past 16 months its driving me mad and i’ve started buying a new set up to use – more simple than before but it will enable me to get the sound I want as using just software aint working at all as I can’t get the low end I want on the tracks, so over the coming months i’ll be picking up all the bits I want for the new hardware studio

You have been apart of the Stepback Sessions since the first volume in 2009. Was this Randall’s thing or was this a joint thing between you two? How did you hook up with Randall and what’s the idea behind the label?
Randall setup Stepback as there was a whole bunch of stuff myself, Bladerunner and Serum had bastardised for our sets, which Randall set about getting everything cleared and released. I help a lot with the label from things like artwork to mastering, and I pass tracks to Randall that have come my way. Its a great little label and has been doing really well.

We have just started up doing some Stepback Sessions tour nights as well. I first met Randall off the back of the Intasound release I did. He called me up and said he was really feeling my tracks and wanted to know if I wanted to work on some tunes with him, which of course I agreed to. He come up to my studio in Newbury and we made The Last Stand and then Angels Warning which come out on Mac II, and we also did a remix of 4Hero’s Mr Kirks Nightmare.

You have remixed some huge tracks like We Are IE, Melody Madness, Maximum Style. But if you could have one producer from back in the day remix one of yours; who would it be?
Good question! To be honest thats a hard one to answer as most of the producers I really liked back in the day are either not making tracks anymore, or make utter crap these days. And most of the producers I like at the minute have already done remixes for me. I reckon Jonny L could do a pretty naughty remix though so he would be my choice

Similar question. What’s the one hardcore / jungle track you wish you could have made?
Damn thats a hard one to pin down. I think if I had to pick one out of my top ten favourites I would go for Krust – Jazz Note on V recordings, as that tune really tells a story and just rolls perfectly.

Your own label 36 Hertz has gone from strength to strength, what have you got lined up on the label? What does the future hold for Vapour and 36 Hertz?
Next release (out now) is the Back To The Bass Volume 3 LP which has been getting some huge support across the board, then after that we have a various artists oldskool 140bpm-style 4 Track EP with tracks from Myself, SR & Digbee, ESP and Indigo Virus. After that release who knows lol.

We have a lot of artists working on music right now so there is plenty in the pipeline but its just down to who brings stuff that will work on the label first. I don’t really do all this 1 year on dubplate shite that loads of labels do, so once I get a release finalised I get it out within 6 weeks if possible. For me personally i’m sitting on about 2 albums worth of non-dnb stuff (old skool & bass music) which should be coming out next year once I get it finished. Im also working on a load of remixes of old skool tracks for various labels and projects.

Tell us a bit about your mix for Drumtrip
Well as always when I draw for a old skool mix I tend to go for the more deeper unknown stuff rather than what I call the “jungle hits” selections that most old skool mixes contain. So I put together a batch of stuff that im feeling the most from the late 90s and a couple of new things that come out on 36 hertz from myself and Jem One in that late 90s style.

Drumtrip Sessions #08 – DJ Vapour

1 – DMS & The Boneman – Strength – Production House
2 – Acro – Untitled – Force 10
3 – Sub Sequence – Music Is The Vibe – Tooz Up Records
4 – Van Kleef – Life Began Changing – PP9 Productions
5 – Revival Rough – Who Goes There – White
6 – NKS & Unknown Face – Dats Cool – Saigon
7 – Code Blue – Angels In Dub (DJ Crystl Remix) – Dee Jay Recordings
8 – Ed Rush – Force Is Electric – No U Turn
9 – DJ Vapour – Never Feel – 36 Hertz
10 – Buz – Slave Special – No U Turn
11 – 4 Horsemen Of The Apocalypse – Drowning In Her – Tone Def
12 – Photek – Touching Down – Photek Productions
13 – Bjorn Stokes – You’re Mine – State Of The Art Recordings
14 – Jem One – Bullet To The Head – 36 Hertz
15 – Dillinja – You Don’t Know (Remix) – Logic
16 – Phaze III & Klass A – Fearful Dimensions (Unreleased Mix) – Dub
17 – Nicky Blackmarket – Geese Tune – Blackmarket
18 – Lemon D – Jah Love – Conqueror
19 – Goldie – Angel – FFRR

Any big ups / shouts?
Big up to everyone buying 36 Hertz releases and supporting the label through the years

www.36hertz.com
facebook /djvapour
twitter – @vapour36hertz
youtube – /36hertz
Bookings – mainsourceagency.com
mixcloud – vapour36hertz

The post Drumtrip Sessions #08 – DJ Vapour appeared first on Drumtrip - Hardcore / Oldskool Jungle Blog.

This happened

“There was a period (roughly) between 1993 to 96 where jungle was not only atmospheric or dark, but it had an other worldly, sci-fi feel. Labels like Deejay, Lucky Spin, Legend, Timeless, Rugged Vinyl and others captured this spacey, blissed-out vibe. A quality that now seems more or less extinct within the contemporary drum and bass scene.

I tried to select tunes for this mix that represent the broad spectrum of this sound. With brooding, dark tracks like ‘Fury’ and ‘Genesis Project’ to the more calming, deep sounds of ‘Intalect’ and ‘Traveling Pt 2’.

There is a feeling of nervous mystery and wonder to these tunes, as if they could be the soundtrack to that part of a sci-fi film where the human protagonists discover a new world, a mystery accelerated by the fact that these sounds now only exist in the past.”

01. Lucida – Tunnel Vision – Production House
02. Chuck E – Fantasy – White House
03. Mysteron – U Don’t Know – Timeless
04. D.O.P.E. – Travelling Pt 2 – Good Looking
05. DJ Monita – The Party (Remix) – Skeleton Recordings
06. Skanna – Greatest Thing – Skanna
07. DJ Pulse – Stay Calm (Foul Play Remix) – Moving Shadow
08. Rufige Kru – Fury – Moving Shadow
09. DJ Fokus – Trigger Happy – Lucky Spin
10. DJ Fokus – Pulse – Lucky Spin
11. Intense – The Genesis Project – Rugged Vinyl
12. Orca – Intalect – Lucky Spin
13. Sounds Of Life – Don’t Resist The Beat – Certificate 18
14. System X – Move Yourself – 3rd Eye
15. The Invisible Man – The Beginning – Timeless

The post Law mix for Two Hungry Ghosts appeared first on Drumtrip - Hardcore / Oldskool Jungle Blog.

Decoder, or Darren Beale as it says on his passport was been responsible for a huge amount of hardcore, jungle and drum and bass since his early outings on Lucky Spin and Deejay Recordings.
Under aliases like Orca, Wild Orkid, Atlas and Koda he first found a niche creating that other–worldly sound made famous by Lucky Spin and his label mates, including the Beverly Craven sampling hardcore anthem 4 AM.

A major unsung hero in drum and bass he continued his work creating dark tracks under his Decoder pseudonym, frequently releasing on Mark Caro’s Tech Itch imprint..
These days he can be found as one third of chart topping trio Kosheen, comprising of radio friendly D&B, Trip-Hop and more pop influenced numbers.

Below is Decoder – Fog, released on Hardleaders in 1996, one of the darkest tunes I know. Very few people can do “dark” jungle/DnB well, however Decoder nails it almost every time.

Turn off the lights and listen.

The post Tune Of The Day: Decoder – Fog appeared first on Drumtrip - Hardcore / Oldskool Jungle Blog.

Tracklisting looks like…

01.. Remarc – Ricky (Remarc & Lewi Cipher Remix) – Dollar
02.. Funky Porcini – King Ashabanapal (Dillinja Remix) – Ninja Tune
03.. Desired State – Killer Beat (Q-Bass Remix) – Ram
04.. Suburban Knights – State Of Art – Intelligent Music Company
05.. Tom & Jerry – On & On – Tom & Jerry
06.. Koda – Time Of Signs – Intalektive
07.. Natural Mystic – Space – Octopus Records
08.. Deep Blue – Sunset Over Stevenage – Moving Shadow
09.. DJ Crystl – Live EP – STU
10.. Phaze 1 – Try A Style – Odysee
11.. Dillinja & Ruffkut – Vol 3 A – Heavyweight
12.. Intense – Prophecy – Rugged Vinyl
13.. Oaysis – Outcry – Moving Shadow
14.. Scarface – I Seen A Man Die (4 Hero NW2 Gangsta Move) – Virgin

The post May Day 2011 Jungle Mix by Law appeared first on Drumtrip - Hardcore / Oldskool Jungle Blog.

Lucky Spin and it’s main offshoot Deejay Recordings were huge and pioneered what I can only describe as ‘Deep Space Jungle’, DJ Crystl in particular but also Orca (aka Decoder), Slipmaster J, DJ Trace and the Invisible Man all played a huge part, mostly with legendary engineer Pete Parsons on the desk.
STU was not necessarily the label name but it was a series of white labels put out by Lucky Spin without only the cat number of STU followed by the number itself, as you can see below some of these tracks do not have tune names, some are not even artist credited but that was part of the mystique in Jungle back in those days I guess.
Anyway, the mix….

-Download-

DJ Crystl – Live EP
DJ Crystl – Give It Up
Slipmaster J – Groundhog Day
Slipmaster J – Groundhog Day (Remix)
DJ Crystl – Let It Roll (Remix)
Orca – 4 AM12
Voyager – Knowledge
Koda What Kind Of World
Acro Superpod
Orca Dancehall
Koda – What Kind Of World
Tonic – Keep It Real
DJ Crystl – Loose
STU-14?
STU-15? – Life Is A Roll
STU-16? – Shelter
Tonic – Wake Up Call
DJ Trace – ??
STU-19? – In The Sky
STU-20?
Psykis – Pretend
Tonic – The Mack / Hip To The Hoppa
1996 STU-23
1996 STU-24 Voyager – Sky High
Invisible Man – Tripping On Technology

The post Lucky Spin STU series mix by Noisemonkey appeared first on Drumtrip - Hardcore / Oldskool Jungle Blog.